Book description
Philosopher and social analyst Ivan Illich, one of the most influential
thinkers of second half of this century, directs his attention to waterm
the 'stuff' of purity and the creative force of the imagination without
which life in unthinkable. He deals with the dual nature of water, as
life-giving material substance and as the wellspring of forml, on which
are founded the most basic myths and cultural manifestations: water as
cleanser, water as domestic necessity and water as a religious and
spiritual force.
Ivan Illich was born in Vienna to a Croatian father and Sephardic-Jewish
mother, and had as native languages Italian, French and German. He later
learnt Serbo-Croatian, the language of his grand-fathers, then Ancient
Greek and Latin, as well as Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi. Thereafter,
he studied histology and crystallography at the University of Florence
(Italy), theology and philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University
in the Vatican (1942-1946) and medieval history in Salzburg. He is the
author of Tools for Conviviality, The Right to Useful Unemployment,
Energy and Equity, Limits to Medicine, Shadow Work, Gender, H2O and the
Waters of Forgetfulness, ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind,
Deschooling Society and In the Mirror of the Past: Lectures and
Addresses 1978-1990. Illich lived much of his life in Mexico and the
United States, he died in 2002.
